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Embassy of the United States of America, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

In this issue:

Issue 13 December 2009

Embassy Sponsors American Film Festival...............................1

Assistant Secretary of State Visits Uzbekistan.................................1

U.S. Honors American Indians, Alaska Natives...........................3

Ambassador Addresses American Chamber of Commerce ............4

Consul Outlines Consular Services at AmCham Meeting...5

Cultural Preservation Grant Supports Restoration of Historic Mosque......................................6

Eid in America ...........................7

The State of New Mexico...........8

USAID-funded HIV/AIDS Project Reviews Achievements............12

USAID-funded Tuberculosis Control Program Concludes Work in Uzbekistan............................13

Modern Dancer Participates in International Program..............14

Hip-Hop Music an Outlet for Self-Expression...............................15

Clinton Reaffirms U.S. Commit-ment to Muslim Communities..16

Obama Congratulates Afghan President and Urges Internal Reforms....................................17

Unlocking the Internet..............18

Stop Global Warming...............19

Universities Work Toward Open Access to Research.................20

Get Ready, Here You Go.........21

Social Networks and Study Abroad ....................................22

Families and Children in Need Benefit from U.S. Humanitarian Donations................................24

DO’STLIK

More than 1,000 people came out to see American movies with themes ranging from cow-boys riding the desert Southwest to love in the big city during the second annual American Film Festival from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8 in Tashkent.

The Film Festival was hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent with the support of the Council of Friendship Societies of Uz-bekistan. The festival consisted of seven movies screened in English, with one movie having Russian subtitles.

Each of the films was selected to show a wide range of the traditions and culture of the United States. They included the classic musical Singin’ in the Rain, the psychologi-cal thriller The Sixth Sense and the comput-

er-animated children’s cartoon A Bug’s Life. The festival also included Rain Man with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, the Woody

Continued on next page

Embassy Sponsors American Film Festival

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake visited Uzbekistan on October 11-14, 2009. Dur-ing the visit, he met with high level offi-cials of the Government of Uzbekistan to discuss a range of issues of mutual inter-est in the political, security, economic, and human dimensions. He also met with representatives from the private sector and civil society.

Below is the transcript of the Assistant Secretary’s press conference, which took place October 14 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Tashkent.

Ambassador Richard Norland: I would like to introduce you to the U.S. Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Mr. Robert Blake.

Continued on page 10

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake Visits Uzbekistan

U.S. Assistant Secretary Robert Blake at a press conference in Tashkent, October 14, 2009. (U.S. Embassy photo)

U.S. Embassy photo

Young guests at the Festival review various hand-out materials on cultural and educational opportunities. (U.S. Embassy photo)

Issue 13 December 2009DO’STLIK

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EMBASSY SPONSORS, continued from front page

Allen favorite Annie Hall, the Western 3:10 to Yuma, and Some Like It Hot, a comedy starring Marilyn Mon-roe.

Many of the movie-goers shared their views of the fes-tival, saying it was a great way to improve their Eng-lish-language skills while seeing different aspects of the U.S. through film.

“(It was) a splendid festival. If it was for seven days,

I’d come every day,” said one person. “I feel like I’ve visited the U.S.,” said another.

Ambassador Richard Norland welcomed the audience at the opening of the festival, and staff of the Embassy led discussions before each film and gave out prizes such as books and DVDs during question-and-answer sessions.

The American Film Festival became an annual event after nearly 1,000 people came out to view the films in 2008, the first year. Carrie Lee, the Cultural Affairs Of-ficer at the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, said film makes for an excellent bridge across cultures and that she ex-pected the film festivals would continue in the future.

“The film festival is an opportunity to share a range of American movie classics with our Uzbek audience, and to experience together the laughter and drama of

these films,” Lee said. “Through film, we can share as-pects of American life and culture while demonstrating the universal human emotions that are in every good story.”

All of the movies were shown free of charge at the Friendship Societies’ building at 49a Uzbekistanskaya, the building formerly known as Muzey Kino.

Embassy Sponsors American Film Festival

Ambassador Richard Norland makes opening remarks welcoming guests to the Film Festival. (U.S. Embassy photo)

Film goers participated in question-and-answer sessions before the screening of each of the seven movies in the Film Festival. (U.S. Embassy photo)

The lucky winner of the movie quiz gets her prize. (U.S. Embassy photo)

Guests enjoy the ‘America 24/7’ poster show. (U.S. Embassy photo)


Each November, Na-tional American In-dian Heritage Month pays tribute to the legacy of the Ameri-can Indians and Alas-ka Natives — the first Americans — and cel-ebrates their enduring contributions to the history and culture of the United States.

Today, there are near-ly 5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States, or 1.6 percent of the total popula-tion, and this is ex-pected to jump to 8.6 million, or 2 percent of the population, by

2050. Most American Indians live in metropolitan areas and not on the 227,000 square kilometers of land held in trust for reservations. The states with the highest percentage of American Indians and Alaska Natives are Alaska (18 percent of its population), Oklahoma (11 percent) and New Mexico (10 percent).

There are 564 federally recognized Indian tribes in the Unit-ed States. The largest, by far, are the Cherokee and Navajo nations, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Navajo is the most widely spoken American Indian language, and almost one-fourth of Navajos speak a language other than English at home — the highest percentage of all tribes. Unfortunately, only one-half of the 300 or so native languages once spoken in North America still have any living speakers.

A study by the public opinion research organization Public Agenda found that non-Indians have little knowledge of the active, vibrant culture of American Indians today. There was a consensus among both Indians and non-Indians in the study about the need for more education on American Indian his-tory and culture.

The first U.S. state to set aside a day to recognize the impor-tance of American Indians in the nation’s history was New York, in 1916. National American Indian Heritage Month was first designated in 1990 under a joint congressional reso-lution approved by President George H. W. Bush. Each year, the sitting president issues a proclamation, as did President Obama this year.

THE CREATION OF AMERICAN INDIAN HERITAGE MONTH

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Af-

fairs provides some background on what has become an an-nual celebration of the culture and contributions of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the Unit-ed States has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose.

One of the early proponents of an American Indian Day was Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, New York. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the “First Americans,” and for three years they adopted such a day. In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kansas, formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Reverend Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call on the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on September 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.

The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.

The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by New York Governor Charles S. Whitman. Several states celebrate the fourth Fri-day in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. Several states designated Columbus Day as Native American Day, but it continues to be a day observed without any recognition as a national legal holiday.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush approved a joint reso-lution designating November 1990 “National American Indi-an Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations have been issued each year since 1994.

See the U.S. Census Bureau Web site for a fact sheet (http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/014346.html) on Ameri-can Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month and additional data (http://factfinder.census.gov/home/aian/index.html) on the American Indian and Alaska Native population.

Both the U.S. Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/top-ics/nativeamericans/index.html) and the National Park Ser-vice (http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/feature/indian/) have Web pages devoted to American Indian Heritage Month.

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U.S. Honors Contributions of American Indians, Alaska NativesNational American Indian Heritage Month is celebrated every November

The National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington, D.C. (© AP Images)

U.S. Ambassador Richard Norland highlighted econom-ic expansion projects and the strengthening bilateral re-lations between the U.S. and Uzbekistan during a speech Oct. 29 at the American Chamber of Commerce in Uz-bekistan.

Norland spoke about the expansion of the Navoi airport into an international cargo hub, construction of the Navoi Free Industrial Economic Zone, and plans to extend rail links from the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan border to Mazar-e-sharif, where goods can be transferred to roads leading to other parts of Afghanistan and South Asia.

Norland also pointed out that talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with Uzbekistan and other Central Asian nations took place in Washington in October.

And as a further sign of improving relations, Nor-land noted that Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake proposed a bilateral consultation mechanism be set in motion to discuss a range of issues be-tween Uzbekistan and the U.S.

During his visit to Uzbekistan on Oct. 11, Blake in-vited a high-level Uzbek delegation to Washington to launch the process.

“I expect this process to take our relationship for-ward in each of the key dimensions – political, se-curity, economic and human,” Norland said, adding that rebuilding trust between the two nations was critical.

“I believe we are making real progress in restoring that trust. There will continue to be differences of ap-proach, but we are finding ways to discuss these on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect. I am con-

vinced that engagement is the best, and indeed the only, way to establish a common understanding on those issues each side values most.”

Ambassador Norland meets regularly with the American Chamber of Commerce in Uzbekistan (AmCham), a group of about 80 members repre-senting the international business community in Uzbekistan. The hard work these business people have put in has been an integral part of Uzbeki-stan’s economic growth, he said.

There was a standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 people Thursday, when Norland and Con-sul David Mico addressed the AmCham members.

Donald Nicholson II, the president of AmCham, said he agreed that many factors were coming to-

gether to help improve the business environment in Uz-bekistan. The Uzbek economy has weathered the global financial crisis well and is seeing continued growth, gold prices are strong, and natural gas production and trans-portation infrastructure is expanding, he noted.

“There’s real growth here, and most people are very en-couraged,” Nicholson said.

Ambassador Norland said he has seen signs that some large American companies are renewing their interest in Uzbekistan, and that it is important to ensure that small- and medium-sized companies – which make up more than 60 percent of Uzbekistan’s gross domestic product – also have opportunities to do business here.

“Our job at the Embassy is to get them to give Uzbeki-stan a fair look. The job of the Uzbek authorities is to create and sustain conditions that make it a sound place to invest,” Norland said.


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Ambassador Addresses American Chamber of Commerce

Ambassador Richard Norland discusses the bilateral relations between the U.S. and Uzbekistan during a speech at the American Chamber of Commerce. (Photo courtesy of the American Chamber of Commerce)

Ambassador Norland (second from left) talks with AmCham President Donald Nicholson (right) and other guests after the speech at the American Chamber of Commerce Chamber of Commerce. (Photo courtesy of the American Chamber of Commerce)

Consul David Mico spoke to more than 100 people at a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Uz-bekistan, where he outlined the visa services available to business travelers who want to visit the United States.

“Supporting the business relationship between the Unit-ed States and Uzbekistan is an important mission of the Embassy. It is a mission that the Consular Section sees very much as its own,” he said. “We sincerely want to do our best to facilitate travel for qualified business ap-plicants.”

Mico and U.S. Ambassador Richard Norland addressed a standing-room-only crowd Oct. 29 at a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham). Ambas-sador Norland’s remarks can be found on the Embassy’s website at http://uzbekistan.usembassy.gov/sp102909.html.

The Consular Section is working to enhance the efficien-cy, predictability and transparency of the visa process. Regardless of the decision on whether to approve a visa, the process of applying for a U.S. visa “should not be another adventure,” Mico said.

Mico noted that the visa application forms and appoint-ment system are now online, along with full information about how to apply, at the U.S. Embassy website (http://uzbekistan.usembassy.gov/non-immigrant_visas.html). The electronic system has reduced errors and allows pro-spective travelers to choose the most convenient appoint-ment times among those available, he said. The current wait time is about 13 days. However, expedited appoint-ments are available for AmCham members traveling for business or for emergency travel.

Mico led the audience through what they can expect on the day of the interview: going through security screen-ing at the Embassy; paying the cashier; and the short in-terview with a consular officer, including fingerprinting, questions about the purpose of travel and family situation, the possible review of documents, and what is usually an immediate yes-or-no decision on the visa request.

He noted that the Consular Section issues thousands of business travel visas each year, and he said that, regard-less of the decision, all applicants will be treated with respect.

Mico also reminded the audience that the Consular Sec-tion is available to help with U.S. passports, notary ser-vices, voter assistance, help with federal benefits and other American Citizen Services (http://uzbekistan.usembassy.gov/service2.html).


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Consul Outlines Consular Services at AmCham Meeting

U.S. Consul David Mico spoke about the visa application process for business travelers during a discussion Oct. 29 at the American Chamber of Commerce. (Photo courtesy of the American Chamber of Commerce)

ABOUT AMCHAM

Organized in 1997 by members of foreign business community resident in Uzbekistan, AmCham Uz-bekistan is a voluntary, independent association of businesspersons and entities that unites mostly for-eign companies originating from the U.S., Europe and South Pacific Asia.

AmCham’s membership is diverse, representing all types and sizes of businesses and their interests. Cur-rently there are over 70 members of our organization. AmCham is an affiliate and a fully accredited member of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, and as such, is eligible to use that organization’s infor-mational and other facilities.

The AmCham seeks to support the business interests of its member companies by providing information on the legal and regulatory issues that affect business activities in Uzbekistan; maintaining a dialogue with the Government of Uzbekistan on issues that affect the business community and pursuing a coopera-tive approach to improving the investment climate; broadening understanding of how foreign investment activities make important contributions to economic growth, employment, education, and technological development in Uzbekistan and communicating with U.S. Government officials regarding the political, economic and business environment in Uzbekistan and the issues affecting the daily operations of foreign investors.

A grant from the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent will help restore and preserve the interior of the Friday Palace Mosque, one of the most important buildings in the historic Ark Citadel in Bukhara.

The approximately $42,000 grant from the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) was awarded to the Bukhara State Architectural Museum, which will use the funds to restore the intricate calligraphy and paintings on the interior walls and ceilings of the mosque. A new heating system also will be installed to better preserve the interior and manuscripts that are displayed there.

The Friday Palace Mosque was built in the 18th Century on the site of the first mosque in Bukhara, which was built in the year 713 but later destroyed. The mosque is located within the Ark Citadel, a mud-walled fortress complex that has served various functions in Bukhara for about 1,200 years. The area is part of the historic center of Bukhara, which is listed on the United Nations’ List of World Heri-tage sites as the most complete example of a medieval city in Central Asia.

Visitors to the mosque can view a wide variety of paintings, wood and stucco decorations and about 60 manuscripts dat-ing from the 9th to 20th Centuries.

In his grant proposal, Robert Almeev, the Director of the Bukhara State Architectural Museum, wrote that the decora-tions in the mosque were in need of urgent assistance.

“The unique examples of wall paintings from the 18th Cen-tury are fading away. Pest insects are damaging the beautiful carved wooden columns and internal and external closures of the mosque,” the proposal states. “The lack of proper cli-mate control … and proper museum equipment is prevent-ing the access of the general public to the building to admire the unique collection of manuscripts.”

The AFCP was created by the U.S. Congress in 2001 to help countries preserve historic sites, artifacts, manuscripts and museum collections, as well as preservation of traditional forms of expression such as music, dance and language.

With the latest grant, the AFCP has contributed about $165,000 to preservation projects in Uzbekistan. These in-clude:

• A 2001 grant for preservation and microfilming manu-scripts at the Abu Raykhan Beruni Institute of Oriental Studies in Tashkent;

• A project in 2002 to preserve and better display 20 Korans dating back to the 11th Century at the Samarkand Cultural History Museum;

• A 2004 grant to equip workshops in Tashkent where mas-ter potters share techniques of traditional pottery making;

• Support for a project in 2005 to protect excavations at Kampir-Tepe, a desert fortress dating to the 4th Century B.C. near the Amu Darya River near Termez;

• A 2006 grant to the Afrosiab Museum in Samarkand to preserve and better display artifacts taken from excavations at Afrosiab, a major trading city near Samarkand that was destroyed around the time of the Mongol invasions in the 12th Century.

• A 2008 grant to the Tamara Khanum Museum in Tashkent to preserve dance costumes from over 70 countries, digitize audio-visual recordings of the famous dancer and create a new photo exhibition hall in the museum.

The 2009 grant marks the first time the U.S. Embassy has supported a historical restoration project in Bukhara.


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Cultural Preservation Grant Supports Restoration of Historic Mosque

A grant of approximately $42,000 from the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation will help restore and preserve calligraphy and paintings in the Friday Palace Mosque in Bukhara. (U.S. Embassy photo)

The ceiling and interior walls of the mosque are decorated with intricate designs and calligraphy. (U.S. Embassy photo)

Despite its size, Al-Farooq Masjid (mosque) of Atlanta, Geor-gia — a soaring structure of stone, travertine marble and elabo-rate brickwork — was filled with worshippers for Eid-al-Fitr prayer services marking the end of Ramadan on September 20.

“We had about 4,500 worshippers. They were packed upstairs, downstairs, even in the stairwell,” said Khalid Saddiq, public relations director for Atlanta Masjid. Eid services were also held at other locations around Atlanta, including three shifts of prayer services at the convention-sized North Atlanta Trade Center.

The crowds at Atlanta Masjid reflect the region’s large and growing Muslim population, now estimated at 75,000.

After the service, worshippers gathered in native dress and tra-ditional Islamic attire, highlighting the diversity of Atlanta’s Muslim-American community. Families came from more than 50 countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia.

In many respects, American Muslims, whatever their back-grounds, celebrate Eid and the completion of a month of Ra-madan fasting — one of the five pillars of Islam — much like the rest of the more than 1 billion Muslims around the world.

Following special prayer services, which include donations to the poor, Eid festivities revolve around family gatherings, gift giving, and meals with traditional foods that usually include a variety of sweet dishes.

President Obama marked the occasion with a White House statement extending personal greetings from himself and his wife, Michelle. “Eid is a time to celebrate the completion of 30 days and nights of devotion.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recalled that her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, held the White House’s first Eid celebration in 1996.

“This time of self-reflection reminds us that the values of Islam — charity, community, cooperation, compassion — are values

that we hold dear as Americans, and which have contributed so much to American culture,” Secretary Clinton said.

Eid traditions can vary by family, mosque and regions of the country. Mostafa Tolba, director of the Muslim American So-ciety’s Quranic Institute in Detroit, has seen two big changes in Eid celebrations over the past decade. One is much less isola-tion of individual mosques consisting of members from a single ethnic group, whether Egyptian, Pakistani or Yemeni. “Today, there is much more mixing of people of every background, a sense that we are one nation, Americans,” he said.

The other change is greater knowledge of astronomy, he ob-served with some relief, which has almost ended old argu-ments about when the sighting of the new moon marks the end of Ramadan.

His family, which includes seven children and one grandchild, serves traditional Arabian food on Eid, plus an American tradi-tion: pizza.

Living in Los Angeles, Salaam Al-Marayati and his family can take advantage of a somewhat newer activity: celebrating Eid at one of the area’s famous amusement parks — Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Magic Mountain or Universal Studios Hollywood, among others.

Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said Ramadan fasting in the United States can be a tougher challenge than in other countries. The whole pace of life changes in Muslim countries, he pointed out, with a slower schedule during the day and more activity at night.

“But in America, there’s no real change with work and the rest of society,” Marayati said. His 15-year-old son faced a difficult challenge with fasting during football, especially the problem of dehydration.

“I told him to give it a try — that there are more important things than the game,” Maryati said. His son made it through Ramadan successfully. The head coach wasn’t too thrilled with a fasting player, but an assistant coach simply told his son, “Good for you.”

Eid gifts are not yet a common sight in U.S. department stores, but a retailer like Online-Islamic-Store.com, based in Colum-bia, Maryland, sells a wide range of Eid items. They include cards, gift bags, picture books, CDs — and a 24-centimeter-high “Happy Eid Mosque” paper statuette.

One sign that Eid in the United States is growing in visibility: complaints that it is becoming overly “commercialized,” echo-ing a traditional complaint about Christmas.

Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council isn’t too wor-ried, since Eid is preceded by the discipline of Ramadan. Still, at the beginning of Ramadan, Marayati posted a wry note on his Facebook page: “Only 33 more shopping days until Eid.”


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Muslim Americans Mix Old and New Traditions in Eid CelebrationsWorshippers pack Atlanta mosque and celebrate at California’s Disneyland

Photos courtesy of Al-Farooq Masjid of Atlanta

New Mexico is the place to visit to expand your intellectual horizons. The state’s unique geology ranges from the Perm-ian Age Carlsbad Caverns to white sand dunes to the high mountains in the northern part of the state. New Mexico also has world-class science at two national laboratories, several observatories, Spaceport America, and the Very Large Ar-ray, among others. History is everywhere. New Mexico has civil war battlefields, archaeological digs, and museums that encompass almost every intellectual interest. At the wild-life refuges, visitors can learn more about the environment all around us. New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, is the place to learn about the world all around us.

New Mexico is a state of about 1.8 million people spread out across 195,693 square kilometers. The fifth-largest state by landmass, New Mexico’s population is a diverse blend of predominately Hispanic, Anglo, and Native American popu-lations and cultures, with a healthy integration of many other races and communities as well. Native Americans occupy four major reservations and nineteen Pueblo communities throughout the state, while close to thirty percent of the state’s total population resides in its largest city, Albuquerque, and its capital city, Santa Fe.

THE CULTUrE OF NEW MExICO

New Mexico is rich in personality. No other state can claim its geographical or cultural diversity, or match its historical complexity. The state has been home to successive waves of Native American hunters, farmers and herdsmen, Spanish explorers, missionaries and settlers, Yankee traders, South-ern expatriates, emancipated Black Americans, Irish railroad workers, Italian stonecutters, Japanese farmers, Jewish and Lebanese merchants, hard rock miners from Eastern Europe, cowboys, soldiers, artists, scientists, and many others who have added to the unfolding tapestry of the state’s evolving history.

In all of New Mexican cultures flows a rich tradition of artis-tic endeavors and achievements, and we are pleased to benefit

from all the expressions that each has to offer, from opera to flamenco, traditional fine art to retablos, classical music to ma-riachi, del canto singing, ballet and ritual dancing, drumming, ceramics and southwestern style jewelry. All of these expres-sive traditions – and many more – are alive in New Mexico, and are continually meeting each other and re-combining into the rich cultural stew that is every New Mexican’s birthright.

New Mexico is Native America. Archaeologists believe that American Indians first arrived in New Mexico between 12,000 to 30,000 years ago, after crossing the Bering Sea from Sibe-ria. For centuries, these ancestral Indians lived a nomadic life, hunting and gathering their food throughout the South-west. About 1,500 years ago, some of these an-cestral groups (today re-ferred to as the Anasazi Indians) began prac-ticing agriculture and established permanent settlements, or pueb-los. The wild foods the Anasazi domesticated are critically important culturally and economi-cally today, and include corn, beans, squash, and chiles. The wonderful and unique cuisine of New Mexico and the Southwest, and much of their agricultural econ-omy, can be traced, in large part, to the original agricultural efforts of the Anasazi.

Other groups, like the ancestors of the Navajo and Apache, continued their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyles. For some New Mexican tribes, this way of life continued un-til well into the 19th century. Later, many became nomadic herders. Today, herding is still a major economic enterprise for these Native Americans, and for New Mexico.

TOp ATTrACTIONS OF NEW MExICO

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory is a premier national secu-rity research institution, delivering scientific and engineering solutions for the nation’s most crucial and complex problems. Its primary responsibility is ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of the nation’s nuclear deterrent. In addition to supporting the Lab’s core national security mission, its work advances bioscience, chemistry, computer science, earth and environmental sciences, materials science, and physics dis-ciplines.


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The State of New Mexico - Land of Enchantment

A Dine-Tah Navajo Dancer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, performs in downtown Gallup, New Mexico, during a parade for the 85th Annual Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Dances. (© AP Images)

Angela Munoz, a ceramic artist from Nicaragua, pulls out a ceramic doll and hands it to a volunteer at her booth at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market at Museum Hill in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (© AP Images)

Dar al-Islam Mosque

An Islamic mosque might seem an unlikely place of worship in a region known for its devotion to the faith of the Span-ish throne. But if you visit the Dar al Islam mosque, hidden away in the hills of the rio Chama valley, you’ll find a stun-ning structure of adobe topped by a softly sculpted dome that seems very much at home in its high-desert environment.

Built in 1981 by renowned Egyptian architect Hassan Fathi to resemble the mosques of north and West Africa, Dar al Islam was originally intended to serve as the centerpiece of a com-munity of schools and living quarters for North American Muslims. The planned village doesn’t exist, but the mosque has developed programs in connection with educational insti-tutions to promote a better understanding of Islam. Retreats, study groups, and workshops there allow participants—Mos-lems and non-Moslems alike— to study with visiting schol-ars. Even if you’re not joining one of these programs, the building is worth a look because of its architectural detail and majestic setting.

Santa Fe National Historic Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was a historic 19th century transportation route across southwestern North America connecting Mis-souri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. First used in 1821 by Wil-liam Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. At first an international trade route between the United States and Mexico, it served as the 1846 U.S. invasion route of New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. After the U.S. acquisition of the Southwest, the trail helped open the region to U.S. economic development and settlement, play-ing a vital role in the expansion of the U.S. into the lands it had acquired. The road route is commemorated today by the National Park Service as the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. A highway route that roughly follows the trail’s path through Colorado and northern New Mexico has been designated the Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway.

Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market is the United States’s largest venue for authentic, quality international folk art and a major international force in the cultural and eco-nomic sustainability of folk artists. Every July, more than 120 select folk artists from over 45 countries (including Uzbeki-stan!) travel to historic Santa Fe, where thousands of national and international visitors gather to admire and buy distinct folk art forms that express the world’s diverse cultures. Sales at the Market directly benefit artists and their families and help sustain communities worldwide. More information is available at http://www.folkartmarket.org

Sources: http://www.newmexico.gov; http://www.newmexico.org; http://www.census.gov; http://www.50states.com.


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QUICk FACTS

Abbreviation: NM

Capital City: Santa Fe

Governor: Bill Richardson

Date of Statehood: January 6, 1912 (47th)

Population: 1,984,356, 36th highest

Area: 314,939 sq. km, 5th largest

Origin of State’s Name: Spanish name for lands north of the Rio Grande River.

Largest Cities: Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, rio Rancho, Roswell, Farmington, Alamogordo, Clovis.

Major industries: electric equipment, petroleum and coal products, food processing, printing and publishing, stone, glass and clay products, tourism.

U.S. Map, courtesy of U.S. Census Bureau.

The mosque dome at the Dar al Islam near Abiquiu, New Mexico. The mosque near Abiquiu is part of Dar al Islam, an organization with a two-fold mission: to educate non-Muslims about Islam, and to bring Muslims together. Founded over 20 years ago, Dar al Islam built the North African-style complex at Abiquiu _ a mosque and the attached madrassa,with the dream of starting a model village, a showcase for Islam in America. (© AP Images)

U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY, continued from front page

Assistant Secretary Blake: Well, good morning. It’s a pleasure for me to be here in Tashkent. I want to say that I appreciate very much the hospitality that I received here in Uzbekistan. It’s my first visit to your beautiful country as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia.

I was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet with His Excellency President Karimov, Foreign Minister Norov, and other members of government. I also appreciated the oppor-tunity to meet with the head of the legislative chamber as well as the president of the Senate. My visit is a reflection of the determination of President Obama and Secretary Clinton to strengthen ties between the United States and Uzbekistan. We want to do this on the basis of our common interests and mutual respect.

I conveyed to President Karimov America’s sincere appre-ciation for Uzbekistan’s support for international efforts in Afghanistan. The United States and Uzbekistan have a shared interest in peace and stability in Afghanistan. I also appreci-ated President Karimov’s perspectives and advice on devel-opments in Afghanistan and the wider region. We discussed ways that the U.S. and Uzbekistan can build our partnership across a wide range of areas. These include trade and devel-opment, border security, cooperation on narcotics, the devel-opment of civil society, and individual rights.

To better enable a future dialogue, we discussed initiating a broad and structured mechanism that allows us to set concrete targets for progress, to work through our differences, and do so in a manner of mutual respect. I told President Karimov of my personal commitment to the success of this dialogue. And I told him of my confidence that the United States and Uzbekistan can make progress on the broad range of priori-ties on our bilateral agenda.

Finally I would like to thank Ambassador Norland and his

excellent team here in Uzbekistan for their support for my visit and for their ongoing outstanding efforts representing the United States here in Uzbekistan. Once again I’d like to thank all of you for coming and I would be pleased to take a few questions from you.

Atif Alaa (Turkish Agency Cihan): As you know there was the signing of the historic protocol between Armenia and Tur-key in Zurich. What do you see as the impact of this protocol as well as the impact in this region?

A/S Blake: Thank you very much for that question. Secretary Clinton was very pleased to be able to witness that historic agreement. We congratulate all of the signatories and believe this represents a very positive development in relations in this area.

Abdumalik Boboev (Uzbek Service of the VOA): In your meeting with the President of Uzbekistan, you said that you discussed the issue of Afghanistan. Were there any agree-ments to be signed in the future in this regard in Uzbekistan, and the second question - you said that you met with repre-sentatives of civil society; what were the subjects you dis-cussed in that meeting?

A/S Blake: On the question of Afghanistan, we discussed our ongoing cooperation. I expressed our appreciation for Uzbekistan’s contributions to the stabilization of Afghani-stan not only through the transit of non-lethal goods, but also through provision of electricity and reconstruction for Af-ghanistan. We did not sign any new agreements with respect to Afghanistan or any other subject.

I did meet with civil society while I was here. This is an im-portant part of our dialogue in every country with which we have relations, and I was very satisfied with the talks that I had with them. Our friends in the Uzbek government also as-sured us that this is an important priority for them as well.

Abdurahmon Tashanov (Harakat website): I’d like to go back to the question on the meeting with the civil society representatives – we would like you to mention the topics of the discussions. My second question is that in the rela-


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U.S. Assistant Secretary Robert Blake and Uzbek President Islam Karimov meet at the Oqsaroy Presidential Residence. (U.S. Embassy photo)

U.S. Assistant Secretary Robert Blake (right) and Ambassador Richard Norland during the meeting with President Karimov at the Oqsaroy Presidential Residence. (U.S. Embassy photo)


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tionship between the EU and Uzbekistan, there were issues of human rights-based dialogue. But the foreign minister of Uzbekistan replied that the human rights issues of Uzbekistan is an internal issue of Uzbekistan, and if Uzbekistan will also say that human rights and democracy are an internal issue of Uzbekistan in talks with the United States, what would be your reaction?

A/S Blake: That’s a lot of questions. First of all, with respect to our talk with civil society I’d prefer to keep those private, just as we respect the confidentiality of our talks with the government. With respect to the human rights question, the United States and Uzbekistan intend to initiate a bilateral an-nual consultation in which we will discuss the full range of priorities on our bilateral agenda. I conveyed an invitation from the United States government to the government of Uz-bekistan to send a high level delegation at the time of their choosing to the United States to begin those consultations. As I said in my statement, I am confident that we will be able to make progress on the full range of priorities on our bilateral agenda.

Sid Yanyshev (freelancer): You mentioned that in the meet-ing with the President of Uzbekistan you spoke about the trade relationship with many countries, but it is known that the labor ministry of the United States called on the textile companies in the United States to boycott Uzbek cotton be-cause of the use of child labor. How would you comment on this?

A/S Blake: With respect to trade and development, we think there are some important opportunities here in Uzbekistan for greater trade and investment for American companies. Uz-bekistan has a large market, a well educated population and the opportunity for American companies to export to other parts of the region. That’s why we’ve seen companies such as General Motors establish operations here, and we will ex-plore ways that we can expose more American companies to the opportunities here.

With respect to the child labor and cotton question that you’ve raised, Uzbekistan has signed two very important conven-tions with the International Labor Organization. It has also issued a decree and a national action plan on this matter, and it is now important I think for those to be implemented.

I’ll take one or two more questions.

Rahimjan Sultanov Golos Rossii (Radio Voice of Russia): It’s good that you appreciated the efforts of Uzbekistan in stability and peace in Afghanistan. But Afghanistan has also other neighbors as well. How do you assess the role of Russia and China in improving the situation in Afghanistan?

A/S Blake: We appreciate very much the role of Russia as well in Afghanistan. As you know President Obama and Pres-ident Medvedev had a summit earlier this year in which they announced their intention to have Russia cooperate more and they announced a specific agreement on the possible future transit of lethal goods through Russian territory. Secretary Clinton also had consultations with her counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov yesterday, and once again I’d like to express

my optimism that the U.S. and Russia have mutual interests in Afghanistan and will be able to cooperate to help to achieve the stabilization of Afghanistan.

Sergey Ejkov (Uzmetronom website): Mr. Blake, Uzbeki-stan’s President Karimov initiated the 6+3 initiative while he was in Bucharest on stabilization of Afghanistan. What’s the attitude of the U.S. to this or the U.S. administration to this initiative? Is there practical implementation of this offer?

Assistant Secretary Blake: The primary focus of the US and the international community now is to await the results of the election and to await the results of the Electoral Com-plaints Commission’s deliberation on the election. President Karimov gave us very valuable advice about the situation in Afghanistan, and I assured him that Ambassador Holbrooke who is our special representative for Afghanistan and Paki-stan, hopes to visit Uzbekistan very soon to be able to carry on more detailed discussions with the government of Uzbeki-stan.

Thank you very much.

ROBeRT O. BlAke

Assistant Secretaryfor South and Central Asian Affairs

Term of Appointment: 05/26/2009 to present

Bob Blake is a career Foreign Service Offi-cer.

Ambassador Blake en-tered the Foreign Ser-vice in 1985. He has served at the American Embas-sies in Tunisia, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. He held a number of positions at the State Department in Washington, including senior desk officer for Turkey, Deputy Executive Secretary, and Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. Ambas-sador Blake served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission in New Delhi, India from 2003 – 2006, as Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives from 2006 to mid-2009, and as Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs from May 2009 to the present.

Mr. Blake earned a B.A. from Harvard College in 1980 and an M.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1984.


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On September 14, the U.S. Agency for International Development and its partners held a regional close-out conference for the USAID-funded 5-year HIV/AIDS program “CAPACITY” in Almaty.

Representatives of the governmental, nongovernmental, and international organizations from Kazakhstan, Kyr-gyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan par-ticipated in the conference that discussed the results of the USAID-funded 2004-2009 program “CAPACITY”.

The program built local technical capacity to launch large-scale responses to HIV/AIDS and develop indige-

nous institutions and networks to manage comprehensive HIV/AIDS control programs.

One of the key CAPACITY achievements is the strength-ened local capability to organize and implement HIV/AIDS prevention activities throughout Central Asia, where experts report a significant rise in the number of HIV/AIDS cases driven by injected drug use. The pro-gram helped develop and introduce national guidelines, monitoring and assessment plans, and data collection systems on HIV/AIDS. It helped improve coordination between nongovernmental sector and local communities and include HIV/AIDS prevention among the most vul-nerable populations as one of the key components in the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plans.

CAPACITY trained staff of 318 AIDS-service organiza-tions in the region. As a result, these organizations de-veloped 39 comprehensive HIV prevention projects and leveraged over $1.8 million of funding for their activi-ties. Over 300,000 youth have benefited from the work of four Youth Centers that CAPACITY opened in the re-gion for HIV prevention among youth. Additionally, the project helped establish a regional network of the people living with HIV.

Much of CAPACITY’s work was concentrated on the improvement of services to help those with HIV/AIDS.

The program developed and introduced the models for integration of TB and HIV/AIDS services in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. 450 medical specialists were trained in management of dual HIV/TB infection, 191 managers of medical institutions improved their knowledge in TB/HIV coordination and monitor-ing, and 7,500 patients received services in pilot sites. TB/HIV management issues were included in graduate medical education.

In Osh Oblast, Kyrgyzstan, the program developed and introduced an improved model on HIV counseling and testing that has already benefited more than 1,200 people. In Temirtau City, Kazakhstan, the project developed and introduced an antiretroviral therapy model for integration of HIV prevention and treatment into the primary health care system. Family doctors in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan enhanced their skills in informing the population on the modes of HIV-infection transmission and prevention, as well as reduction of stigma and dis-crimination against people living with HIV/AIDS.

Representatives of governmental, civil society, and inter-national organizations from all five countries reviewed these and other achievements of CAPACITY and dis-cussed how these achievement will be included in future activities on HIV prevention in the region.

* * *

USAID-funded CAPACITY Program was implemented by John Snow Institute. For additional information please visit the web site: www.capacityproject.info

USAID-funded HIV/AIDS Project Reviews its Achievements in Central Asia

In the photos, USAID-funded HIV/AIDS Project participants review their achievements in Central Asia at a regional conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan. (Courtesy of U.S. Embassy)


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The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Project HOPE held a conference on Sep-tember 29, at the “Poytakht” business center in Tashkent to review the results of their joint 5-year Tuberculosis (TB) Control Program in Uzbekistan.

The conference gathered representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan, USAID, the National Research Institute of TB and Pulmonology, the Republican DOTS Center, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), the World Health Organization, and other Uzbek as well as inter-national organizations working on tuberculosis preven-tion.

This $4 million program assisted the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan in implementing the National Tuberculo-sis Control Program from 2004 to 2009. The program trained health providers and decision-makers (managers at the rayon and oblast level), and helped local specialists monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their work.

The USAID-funded program helped national specialists develop the academic curricula on TB, standards for a laboratory network, as well as recommendations on ex-ternal quality control, monitoring, and drug management related to TB.

More than 4,000 health care providers were trained on DOTS strategy, management of TB control, supervision, TB and HIV co-infection, multi-drug resistant TB, drug management, and counseling of TB patients.

The USAID-funded program also worked to increase TB awareness among healthcare providers and popula-tion. The program trained more than 150 journalists and 200 makhalla leaders to provide information about TB to general population. With their support, the program educated more than 35,000 people on TB symptoms and the importance of timely medical care.

Additionally, a series of TV and radio programs and pub-lic service announcements on TB issues were broadcast on 22 regional TV channels and numerous radio stations and reached more than 22 million of the country’s resi-dents.

The USAID-funded TB Control Program was imple-mented by Project HOPE in cooperation with the Min-istry of Health, Republican DOTS Center, National TB Research Institute of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and other local and international partners. The program is one of the many that were made possible by the Ameri-can people through USAID.

* * *

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is a U.S. Government agency that provides development assistance to over 100 countries around the world. Since 1993, USAID has been assisting Uzbekistan to further agriculture and other sectors of the country’s economy and improve healthcare system. Additional information can be found at http://centralasia.usaid.gov.

* * *

Project HOPE is an international health foundation “Peo-ple-To-People” established in 1958 with over 50 years conducting training programs in a health sphere. Its head office is located in Virginia, USA. For more information go to http://www.projecthope.org.

USAID-funded Tuberculosis Control Program Concludes its Work in Uzbekistan

Participants of the conference, organized by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Project HOPE, discuss results of the 5-year Tuber-culosis Control Program. The program was funded by USAID and implemented by Project HOPE in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Republican DOTS Center, National TB Research Institute of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and other local and international partners in Uzbekistan. (Courtesy of U.S. Embassy)

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Dancer Sergei Zlotnikov began a series of classes on modern and hip-hop dance techniques when he returned to Tashkent after an intensive two-week program at some of the most prestigious dance stu-dios in the United States.

Zlotnikov was selected to join a group of modern dancers from around the world in the Cultural Visitors Program admin-istered by the U.S. State Department and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Kennedy Center, located in Washington, D.C., is one of the United States’ premier venues for music, dance, theater and other performing arts.

For two weeks in September and Octo-ber, Zlotnikov joined other dancers from Barbados, Peru and Vietnam as they studied the techniques and theory of modern dance. During the first week in New York City, they attended classes with instructors from the world-famous Martha Gra-ham School of Contemporary Dance, the Alvin Ailey Ameri-can Dance Theater and other top schools.

They then traveled to Washington, D.C., where they had classes and attended rehearsals with the CityDance Ensemble and other groups. They also participated in sessions covering topics such as the business of producing dance events and teaching dance to youth.

Throughout the program, the dancers also attended perfor-mances of some of the top dance ensembles in the world.

On October 17, Zlotnikov led a master class at the Chore-ography School in Tashkent on hip-hop dance techniques, and he is planning other classes at the Theater Institute. More than 80 dancers and instructors attended the class.

“This was a chance for them to try something new, something more free form,” said Carrie Lee, the Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent. “The dancers were doing things their bodies normally don’t do, and they were really enjoying it.”

Zlotnikov said he hoped the Cultural Visitors experience would help him increase the exposure and professional qual-ity of modern dance in Uzbekistan.

“There is a growing interest in modern dance in Uzbekistan, and I hope my participation will help to further expand mod-ern dance in my country,” Zlotnikov said. “In Uzbekistan, traditional Uzbek dancing is well developed, however, there is very little growth in modern dance.”

Zlotnikov is the artistic director and choreographer of the 2D Studio in Tashkent. He trained at the Higher School of Na-

tional Dance and Choreography and has served as art director of the National Art Center of Fund Forum Uz.

“Dancing has been my passion since childhood,” he said.

Zlotnikov was the first dancer to estab-lish a hip-hop dance school in Uzbeki-stan, teaching the styles of the popular American dance form, he said. Some of his students are now teaching others those styles, he added.

In 2009, the Cultural Visitors program hosted about 50 performing artists from around the world in similar two-week residencies. These artists – from coun-

tries ranging from Peru to the Palestinian Territories to Cambodia – included dancers, musicians, actors, theater technicians and directors.

The program’s goals are to help these artists energize the fields of performing arts in their own countries, while build-ing relationships with artists in the United States.

Modern Dancer Participates in International Program

In the photos: Sergei Zlotnikov leads classes on hip-hop dance techniques upon his return from a two-week program of study in the United States. (Courtesy of U.S. Embassy)

African-American and Latino teens with turntables and time on their hands in the 1970s invented hip-hop — a musical style born in the United States and now the center of a huge music and fashion industry around the world.

Hip-hop began 30 years ago in the Bronx, a borough of New York City and a neighborhood that seemed to exemplify the bleakness of poor urban places.

Using turntables to spin old, worn records, kids in the South Bronx began to talk over music, creating an entirely new music genre and dance form. This “talking over,” or MCing

(rapping) and DJing (audio mixing and scratching), became the essence of rap music, break dance and graffiti art, accord-ing to Marvette Perez, curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, which launched its collecting initiative “Hip-Hop Won’t Stop: The Beat, The rhymes, The Life” in 2006.

“Out of this forgotten, bleak place, an incredible tradition was born,” Perez said.

“It’s important for young people to know that their stories matter,” said Jade Foster, an English and humanities teacher at Ballou Senior High School in Washington, which hosted a summer program in 2009 encouraging students to express themselves through hip-hop. “It’s important for young people to know that their stories are relevant to their lives and their histories.”

From the beginning, style has been a big element of hip-hop, Perez said. “Hip-hop tells the story of music, but also of ur-ban America and its style.”

“With the significant contributions from the hip-hop commu-nity, we will be able to place hip-hop in the continuum of American history and present a comprehensive exhibition,” Brent D. Glass, director of the museum, said.

The museum’s multiyear project traces hip-hop from its ori-gins in the late 1970s, as an expression of urban black and Latino youth culture, to its status today as a multibillion-dol-lar industry worldwide. Perez said they have received col-lections from hip-hop artists including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc, Ice T, Fab 5 Freddy, Crazy Legs and MC Lyte.

“Hip-hop is the most important contribution to the American cultural landscape since blues and jazz,” said hip-hop artist and promoter, filmmaker and producer Fab 5 Freddy, born Fred Brathwaite. “It is dominant in every youth culture in every country.” According to statistics gathered in 2009 by Russell Simmons and Accel Partners, today’s global hip-hop community comprises 24 million people between the ages of 19 and 34, including a range of nationalities, ethnic groups and religions.

HIp-HOp CUTS ACrOSS rACIAL LINES

“One thing that is applicable to every generation of teenagers is urgency,” music producer and film director Mark Shimmel said. Everything about hip-hop — the sound, the lyrics, the style, the language — conveys that sense of urgency.

The sociological and cultural impact of rock ‘n’ roll pales in comparison to what hip-hop has been able to accomplish, Shimmel said. “Hip-hop is the singular most important meld-ing of black and white cultures that has ever existed in the United States.”

Urban music, like Motown, “worked for white audiences,” he said, but you did not see blacks and whites together at live concerts. Hip-hop changed that because it was about fashion and language from the beginning, and — most importantly — captured a sense of urgency that teenagers in the suburbs and in the cities could relate to, he said.

Fab 5 Freddy, host of the television show Yo! MTV Raps in the 1980s, said hip-hop is successful because the music is “infectious” and because it allows people to express them-selves in a positive, dynamic and consciousness-raising way. “Hip-hop is for everybody with an open ear,” he said.

In 1985, when run-D.M.C.’s King of rock became the first hip-hop record to “go platinum,” an award given by the Re-cording Industry Association of America for the sale of 1 mil-lion records, it was apparent that hip-hop had crossed over from African-American and Latino urban music into white culture, Shimmel said. In 2005, OutKast’s Grammy Award for Album of the Year was a first for a hip-hop album.

Shimmel said hip-hop today has not strayed far from its South Bronx roots. “Every musical form evolves,” Shimmel said. “Hip-hop started in New York, and it was interpreted differently in Los Angeles, and then the South added another element. It has evolved, but it hasn’t changed.”


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Hip-Hop Music an Outlet for Self-Expression

Hip-hop bands, including The Roots, performing at an Independence Day festival, top the music charts and reach diverse audiences. (© AP Images)

Washington, D.C. — In a speech to the sixth Forum for the Future, Secretary of State Hillary rodham Clinton reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to broad engagement with Muslim communities around the world and the equally strong U.S. commitment to comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

“Our work is based on empowering individuals rather than promoting ideologies; listening and embracing others’ ideas rather than simply imposing our own; and pursuing partner-ships that are sustainable and broad-based,” Clinton said No-vember 3. “We believe that despite our differences, there is so much more that unites us.”

After her speech to the Forum for the Future meeting in Mar-rakesh, Morocco, Clinton was scheduled to travel to Cairo for consultations with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and senior government officials before returning to the United States. She met October 31 with Palestinian Authority Presi-dent Mahmoud Abbas and separately with Israeli Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu in a renewed effort by the United States to restart the stalled peace talks, and the trip to Egypt is seen as a continuation of those consultations.

The Forum for the Future, founded in 2004, is a joint initia-tive between the countries of the broader Middle East and North Africa and the Group of Eight major industrialized economies. It provides an opportunity for the governments, civil society and the private sector to discuss political and economic reforms aimed at promoting greater freedom, de-mocracy and economic growth in the Middle East region.

Clinton, in a speech that was billed as an expansion of Presi-dent Obama’s June 4 speech in Cairo, outlined three initia-tives the United States is launching to expand engagement with Muslim communities around the world. The first of the three initiatives is partnering with Muslim communities to advance entrepreneurship, job creation and economic devel-opment.

“We are committed to building ladders of opportunity to help develop the enormous talents that reside in the people of this

region,” Clinton said. Early next year, the United States will host an entrepreneurship conference in Washington to con-vene people focused on creating small businesses, expand-ing their businesses, and translating the talent they have into income generation to assist their families and communities, she said.

Second, Clinton said, the United States will partner with Muslim communities in laying the foundation for knowl-edge-based economies that will spur innovation through science and technology. As part of that initiative, the State Department has established a science envoys program that will send envoys to North Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia to fulfill the president’s mandate to foster scientific and technological collaboration, she said.

Education, Clinton said, is the third area for engagement. “We have also begun a program to support partnership be-tween U.S. community colleges and institutions in Muslim communities to share knowledge and to train students for good jobs,” Clinton said. And the United States is expanding scholarship opportunities, including for underserved second-ary school students.

To assist civil society groups, the United States is launching Civil Society 2.0, an initiative to empower grass-roots civil society organizations around the world by helping them use digital technology, Clinton said.

The United States is launching expanded efforts to empower women and girls to participate fully in all aspects of their societies. “We strongly support the call made at last year’s Forum for the Future for the creation of a regional gender institute to help advance women’s empowerment across the board politically, economically, educationally, legally, so-cially and culturally,” she added.

MIDDLE EAST pEACE

The United States is committed to a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Clinton told Middle East-ern and North African leaders November 3.

“We are determined and persistent in the pursuit of that goal,” she said. “I know this a matter that is of grave and pervasive concern among the countries represented here, but even far beyond this region.”

While saying that making the peace is attainable, Clinton ac-knowledged that the United States cannot do it alone.

“I believe that with your support, we can find a way through the difficult and tangled history that too often prevents us from making progress on this most important issue,” Clinton said. “As leaders of countries that have a direct stake and care deeply about all of the final status issues that must be resolved, I would just ask you to think about how we can each demonstrate the commitment that is necessary for us to go forward.”


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Clinton Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Muslim Communities

Secretary Clinton addresses the 6th Forum for the Future in Marrakesh, Morocco. (© AP Images)

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Washington, D.C. — President Obama has congratulated Afghan President Hamid Karzai on winning re-election but also called for a “new chapter” to improve Afghan gover-nance and end corruption. Obama also cited a need to in-crease the ability of Afghan forces to provide security for their own country.

Speaking to reporters with Swedish Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt at the White House November 2, Obama said that although the Afghan election process had been “messy,” the final outcome had been “determined in accordance with Af-ghan law.”

Afghanistan held presidential and provincial elections Au-gust 20. For several weeks after the vote, Afghan election officials investigated claims of fraud and irregularities and ultimately threw out millions of votes. Because Karzai did not win an outright majority in the final tally, a presiden-tial runoff vote against Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, his closest challenger, was planned for November 7. That runoff was cancelled by an Afghan-led commission on November 2, following Abdullah’s November 1 decision to withdraw from the contest.

The final result is “very important not only for the inter-national community that has so much invested in Afghan success, but, most importantly, [it] is important for the Af-ghan people that the results were in accordance with and followed the rules as laid down by the Afghan Constitu-tion,” Obama said.

Obama said he emphasized to Karzai that while the United States and the international community want to continue to work with Afghan leaders to help the country prosper and improve security, “this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter based on improved gover-nance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption, [and] joint efforts to accelerate the training of Afghan secu-rity forces, so that the Afghan people can provide for their own security.”

Obama cited President Karzai’s stated willingness to “move boldly and forcefully forward” to initiate internal reforms and take advantage of the international community’s inter-est.

“The proof is not going to be in words; it’s going to be in deeds,” the president said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said November 2 that Karzai is “the legitimate leader of the country,” and despite the country having undergone a difficult electoral process, Afghanistan’s laws and institutions had prevailed.

“Obviously, that’s the beginning of a process whereby the rule of law carries the day,” he said.

In a November 1 statement, Secretary of State Hillary Rod-ham Clinton acknowledged Abdullah’s decision to pull out of the contest and said he had run “a dignified and construc-tive campaign” that earned him support from Afghans all around the country.“We hope that he will continue to stay engaged in the na-tional dialogue, and work on behalf of the security and pros-perity of the people of Afghanistan,” Clinton said.

The secretary also pledged U.S. support for Karzai and the Afghan people “who seek and deserve a better future.”

U.S. STrATEGY ExpECTED SOON

The Obama administration has been evaluating the situation in Afghanistan in preparation for announcing a new U.S. strategy.

Press secretary Gibbs said that with Karzai’s election to a second five-year term, the administration’s discussions can now “take place with who we know is going to lead the country.”

The president and his advisers are working on “how best to formulate a strategy that supports the goal of disrupting, dismantling and ultimately destroying al-Qaida,” Gibbs said, and expected that the decision will be made “in the coming weeks.”

“We want to ensure that a safe haven can’t be created [in Afghanistan] in which [al-Qaida] could come back and es-tablish a stronghold, with which to plan and attack us,” he said.

Obama’s decision “was not dependent upon when a leader was determined” by the country, but Gibbs added that ev-eryone in the U.S. national security team recognizes that no “strategy could be successful without successful gover-nance of Afghanistan.”

A transcript of remarks by Obama and Reinfeldt and the full text of Clinton’s statement are available on America.gov.

Obama Congratulates Afghan President and Urges Internal Reforms

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai greets the guards of honor as he arrives to the Presidential Palace for his inauguration in Kabul, Afghanistan on November 19. (© AP Images)


In 1998, two graduate students at Stanford University in Cali-fornia thought they saw how to unlock the Internet’s rapidly expanding universe of information. A decade later, Google—as they called their invention—had become the dominant In-ternet search engine in most of the world. Its revenue topped $20 billion in 2008, half from outside the United States, and its employees numbered 20,000. Its computers could store, index, and search more than one trillion other Web site pag-es. So ubiquitous had this search engine grown that its very name had become a verb: When most people want to find something on the Internet, they “google” it.

Although this astonishing success has rarely been matched, its ingredients are a familiar part of the U.S. economic sto-ry. Google illustrates how ideas, entrepreneurial ambition, university research, and private capital together can create breakthrough innovations.

Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry page, started with particular advantages. Brin, born in Moscow, and Page, a midwesterner, are sons of university professors and computer professionals. “Both had grown up in families where intel-lectual combat was part of the daily diet,” says David Vise, author of The Google Story. They met by chance in 1995 at an orientation for new doctoral students at Stanford Universi-ty’s graduate school, and by the next year they were working together at a new Stanford computer science center built with a $6 million donation from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

As with other Internet users, Brin and Page were frustrated by the inability of the existing search programs to provide a useful sorting of the thousands of sites that were identified by Web queries. What if the search results could be ranked, they asked themselves, so that pages that seemed objectively most important were listed first, followed by the next most impor-tant, and so forth? Page’s solution began with the principle that sites on the Web that got the most traffic should stand at the top in search reports. He also developed ways of assess-ing which sites were most intrinsically important.

At this point, Stanford stepped in with critical help. The uni-versity encourages its PhD students to use its resources to de-

velop commercial products. Its Office of Technology Licens-ing paid for Google’s patent. The first funds to purchase the computers used for Google’s searches came from a Stanford digital library project. Their first users were Stanford students and faculty.

The linkages between university research and successful business innovation have not always thrived in regions where technology industries are not well rooted. But Stanford, in Palo Alto, California, stands at the center of Silicon Valley, a matrix of technology companies, investment funds, and in-dividuals with vast personal fortunes that evolved during the decades of the computer industry’s evolution.

In 1998, Brin and Page met Andy Bechtolsheim, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, an established Silicon Valley leader. Bechtolsheim believed that Brin and Page could succeed. His $100,000 personal check helped the pair build their computer network and boosted their credibility. A year later, Google was handling 500,000 queries a day and winning recognition across the Internet community. Google’s clear advantages over its rivals and the inventors’ commitment attracted $25 million in backing from two of Silicon Valley’s biggest ven-ture funds. And the founders got the money without having to give up control of the company.

A decade after its founding, Google’s goals have soared astronomically. As author Randall Stross, author of Planet Google, puts it, the company aims to “organize everything we know.” Its initiatives include an effort to digitize every published book in the world.

Google has emerged as a metaphor for the openness and cre-ativity of the U.S. economy, but also for the far-ranging U.S. power that so worries foreign critics. Human rights advocates and journalists blasted Google’s 2006 agreement to self-cen-sor its search engine in China at the direction of Beijing’s government. Google answers that these kinds of restrictions will fade with the spread of democracy and individual free-doms. If that proves true, this example of American entrepre-neurship will have been an agent of that change.

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Unlocking the Internet

This Google logo commemorates the visit by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II to Google’s London office. (© AP Images)

Google founders Sergey Brin, left, and Larry Page answer questions from jour-nalists. (© AP Images)

By Michael Specter

Award-winning writer Michael Specter has been a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine since 1998. His awards include the Global Health Council’s Annual Excellence in Media Award (2002 and 2004) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2002 Science Journalism Award.

People who refuse to accept the truth — that AIDS is caused by a virus, for example, or that global warming is genuine and the result of human activity – will always be with us. But as the profoundly disturbing facts about the pace of warm-ing become increasingly evident, the cries of climate change denialists seem finally to have been overcome by the mount-ing series of grim realities. Those realities are both obvious and subtle: Between 1961 and 1997, the world’s glaciers lost nearly 4,000 cubic kilometers of ice; since the Arctic is warm-ing at nearly three times the global average, Greenland’s ice sheet may already have passed the point of saving.

Greenland is hardly the only place in acute danger of massive forced change. One projection, by no means the most alarm-ist, has estimated that the homes of 13 to 88 million people around the world would be flooded by the sea each year in the 2080s. As always, poorer countries will suffer the most.

Although specific estimates vary, scientists and policy offi-cials increasingly agree that allowing emissions to continue at the current rate would induce dramatic changes in the global climate system. Some scientists liken climate change to a tidal wave that can no longer be held at bay. These are not issues that can be easily solved — but it’s not too late to prevent the worst effects of warming, despite what many peo-ple say. Still, to avoid the most catastrophic effects of those changes, we will have to hold emissions steady in the next decade, then reduce them by at least 60 to 80 percent by the middle of the century.

Is that possible? Absolutely. But it will require equal mea-sures of sacrifice and science. (And the willingness of Ameri-cans and Europeans to stop expecting China and India to cut emissions as rapidly as we must in the West and to stop using their limited progress as an excuse to do nothing.)

Individuals can do a lot. According to one 2008 study by re-searchers at Carnegie Mellon University, for instance, if we all simply skipped meat and dairy just one day each week, it would do more to lower our collective carbon footprint than if the entire population of the United States ate locally pro-duced food every day of the year. In fact, producing just one kilogram of beef causes the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as driving a small car more than 112 kilometers.

The most important way to rein in carbon emissions is to charge for them, either through taxes or with a cap and trade system. Obviously, when the cost of polluting is low there are few incentives to stop it, and the cost of pollution remains far too low. The Kyoto protocol was never ratified in the United States because the Bush administration and the U.S. Con-

gress feared it would result in large job losses; however, the Obama administration and an increasing number in Congress understand that the real costs of global warming will be, and in many cases are already, far higher than the costs of pre-tending the problem does not exist. Climate-induced crises pose the risk of destabilizing entire regions of the world.

But how do we cut fossil fuel emissions? One way, of course, is to consume less. Another is to develop new types of fuel, fuel that will not tax our environment. Scientists throughout the world are trying to do just that. In the United States people like Craig Venter, who directed the team that won the race to sequence the human genome, are now working on engineer-ing microbes that could help move the United States away from our addiction to oil — while drastically cutting green-house emissions. There are many similar efforts underway throughout the country. In California, for example, Amyris Biotechnology, which had already manufactured a synthetic malaria drug, has now engineered three microbes that can transform sugar into fuel, including one that turns yeast and sugar into a viable form of diesel. Amyris says that by 2011 it will be producing more than 750 million liters of diesel fuel a year — resounding proof of the principle that we can cre-ate new forms of energy without destroying the atmosphere. The Obama administration has signaled, with words and with money, that such endeavors will be supported, which, in a world dominated by the political might of entrenched inter-ests, has not been easy.

Without international cooperation, none of these efforts will make enough of a difference. Many people are beginning to understand that — which is why, for example, conservation-ists are beginning to pay poor timber farmers in places like Indonesia not to allow their rainforests to be ripped apart by loggers. I can only hope it doesn’t take a catastrophe to make the rest of us confront the serious challenges we face — or embrace the fact that we can and are capable of facing them successfully.

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily re-flect the views or policies of the U.S. government.


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The 21st-Century Challenge: Stop Global Warming

The melting Greenland ice sheet is seen through an iceberg in Kulusuk, near the Arctic Circle. (© AP Images)


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Before the Internet, many took for granted that scholarly journals were something to which libraries and individuals subscribed. But now there are a variety of other venues open to scholars using both fee-based and free models that are aimed at putting the latest knowledge in the hands of people who need it.

Five of the top research universities in the United States signed a compact September 14 that is expected to make the latest scholarship even more readily available to scholars and researchers around the world.

Cornell University, Dartmouth University, Harvard Univer-sity, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California at Berkeley signed the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity. The compact commits the universities to providing funds for their faculty to publish in so-called “open-access” journals, many of which charge authors a fee for publication.

“The dissemination of research findings to the public is not merely the right of research universities: it is their obliga-tion,” said MIT provost L. rafael reif in summing up the compact. “Open-access publishing promises to put more re-search in more hands and in more places around the world. This is a good enough reason for universities to embrace the guiding principles of this compact.”

Although the five compact signers are not the first universities to launch funds to pay publication fees at fee-based open-ac-cess journals — more than 20 worldwide have done so — the new compact represents “a large incremental advance,” says Peter Suber, a professor of philosophy at Earlham College and a fellow of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center and Harvard University’s Office for Scholarly Communication. “The five are major research institutions with significant influence, and … the compact expressly encourages other institutions to join the effort,” added Suber. In many coun-tries, the cost of traditional subscription scholarly journals is prohibitive, and libraries at even the most heavily endowed universities in the United States and Europe are finding it increasingly difficult to afford their spiraling costs.

The rising cost of gaining access to the latest research and scholarship has given impetus to what is sometimes known as the open-access publishing movement, but the debate over what “open access” should mean has been contentious. This has been especially true since the well-known Budapest Open Access Initiative, launched in 2001, defined open ac-cess to mean “permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these arti-cles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the Internet itself.”

Today, there are many open-access scholarly journals and archives that are online and free of charge. They typically

either are funded by a subsidy from a hosting university or professional society or charge the author a fee when accept-ing an article (with fees usually waived in cases of economic hardship). Their traditional subscription counterparts typi-cally charge readers.

But groups such as the American Association of University Presses (AAUP) argue that “open access need not be limited to journals and can also be achieved through other models, such as those that combine some form of market-based cost recovery with free access for users a certain length of time after initial publication, or that offer free access to one form of publication and paid access to others.”

If articles are available for free, critics ask, will the money still be there to cover the cost of peer review and publication? Is open access compatible with copyright and the continued existence of traditional publishers?

Suber regards open-access journals as a “superior system of scholarly communication.” They accelerate “research by re-moving the access barriers which cause delay, duplication, expense, exclusion and error.” Other benefits may include larger audiences for an author’s work, reduced expenses for universities and increased return on investments for govern-ment and funding agencies, he said.

The journals opposed to open access say they incur consider-able staff, capital and operational costs managing the peer review system.

A recent report, The Future of Scholarly Journals Publish-ing Among Social Science and Humanities Associations, found that the average cost of publishing one page in major humanities and social science journals was more than twice what it cost in science, technical and medical journals. The report concluded the open-access publishing model “is not currently a sustainable option” for the humanities and social sciences.

A study published in the journal Science in February 2009 found that, while open-access articles were used more in the developing world, articles available for a fee were cited more often in the professional literature. The study was based on data from more than 26 million articles in more than 8,000 scientific journals dating back to 1945.

Publishers and researchers “know that their traditional busi-ness model is creating new walls around discoveries,” said Thomas C. Leonard, university librarian at the University of California at Berkeley, in the compact announcement. “Uni-versities can really help take down these walls and the open-access compact is a highly significant tool for the job.”

More information on the compact is available at http://www.oacompact.org/.

Universities Work Toward Open Access to ResearchFive major research universities sign compact


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So you were accepted by a university in another country. You’re applying for a visa. Whew! You are ready to kiss your mother goodbye, pat the dog, and get on the plane, huh? Not so fast! There’s a lot more you need to do to prepare for an international trip. Your journey should be fun and exciting, but remember that the U.S. State Department alone must come to the assistance of 200,000 travelers each year who are victims of crime, accident, or illness, or whose family needs to make emergency contact. Anything can happen, but the consequences can sometimes be eased with the proper preparation.

Long-Term Preparations

Study up on the local conditions, government, politics, laws, weather, and culture of the country you’re visiting. All of these influences will be shaping your new environment every day. Know what you are getting into.

Check with the foreign ministry of your home country to see if your government has issued any travel warnings or announcements for the place you are going. For instance, Americans can check for such information with the U.S. State Department at http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html.

Think about your health and health care during the course of your trip. Turn to your nation’s embassy in your destination country to find out if you need vaccinations or immunizations to protect yourself from disease where you are going. If you need special medicines on a regular basis, make sure they are legal substances at your destination and plan for how you will be able to maintain the supply you’ll need.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also maintains comprehensive information on various health is-sues and conditions a traveler might encounter with advice on planning ahead. That Web site is available at http://www.cdc.gov/travel.

You may be accustomed to a system of national health care that is nonexistent in other places. You’ll need to find out what options are available for your health care in your destination country, and what type of health and travel insurance will be valid in case of illness or accident. If you have allergies or an unusual medical condition, you should consider wearing a medical bracelet describing the appropriate treatment.

If you plan on driving abroad, check with authorities in your destination to see if you need an International Driving Permit (IDP). The most reliable place to obtain an IDP is through national automobile associations. Also find out what auto in-surance coverage is required.

Short-Term Preparations

Leave copies of important documents with your family at home. This includes duplicates of your passport identifica-tion page, airline tickets, driver’s license, credit cards, itiner-

ary, traveler’s check serial numbers, and contact information abroad. This information could be critical for relatives to as-sist if you are involved in an accident or emergency.

Make sure your covered luggage tags are labeled with your name, address, and telephone numbers. Also, place your con-tact information inside each piece of luggage.

Familiarize yourself with the air travel security guidelines for luggage, and find out how much luggage your airline will allow.

Know the credit limits on all your credit cards, as well as how to contact those companies from abroad.

Know the location and contact information for your nation’s embassy or consulate closest to your destination. If possible, register with the embassy upon your arrival so that it’s pos-sible to find you in case of emergency.

Plan for multiple ways to contact home: calling card, interna-tionally accessible e-mail address, fax, and the like.

Order foreign currency and/or traveler’s checks. Find out if your financial institution is a member of electronic networks that will allow use of a debit card to directly access a check-ing account at home. Avoid carrying large amounts of cash.

For insurance purposes, create an itemized list of all that you’ve packed in your luggage.

Arrange transportation to the airport in your home country.

Inquire about ground transportation in the country your visit-ing, and how to reach your ultimate destination. Be prepared to make appropriate arrangements.

If you are going to a country with a very different climate than yours, make sure you’ll have the appropriate clothing upon arrival.

Get Ready, Here You Go

A young traveler rushes through the airport at Duesseldorf, Germany. (© AP Images)


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By Charlotte West

Social-networking technology has helped make geographic borders almost irrelevant for young people seeking infor-mation about education programs or staying in touch with peers. Charlotte West is a freelance writer and former in-ternational student.

Students are increasingly using social-networking sites such as Facebook to research their study-abroad destina-tions and get information from people with experience. This technology has also proven to be an important way to keep in touch with friends made while abroad, as well as to make new ones.

Café Abroad was founded in 2006 by Dan Schwartzman, then a 24-year-old graduate from Pennsylvania State Uni-versity recently returned home from a study-abroad stint in Australia. He wanted to “create a site by students, for students, where students can answer any question another student may have with genuine student-generated informa-tion.”

Katherine Lonsdorf, a recent graduate in diplomacy and world affairs from Occidental College in Los Angeles, wrote a series of articles for Café Abroad. Her writing in-spired several students to get in touch with questions about her year abroad in Jordan and the Middle East.

“While writing for Café Abroad, I was contacted by at least a dozen or so other students from around the country who were thinking about studying in Jordan and wanted to talk with me about my experience,” she says. “They usually found me on Facebook, after picking up my name from a byline.”

Café Abroad InPRINT

In the several years since its launch, Café Abroad has blos-

somed into a nationally distributed magazine, Café Abroad InPRINT, currently distributed at more than 330 colleges and universities around the United States. Dan Schwartz-man has also developed what he calls “The Café Abroad Networking Solution.” He says the concept is “a social net-work for study-abroad offices to connect students internally within their own schools in a private network overseen by study-abroad administrators -- in addition to a global net-work where students could more openly share their abroad experience with other students at their school.”

The importance of student-generated content, such as the articles written by Lonsdorf, is also being increasingly rec-ognized by educational institutions. The State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz, for instance, launched a series of study-abroad blogs written by students in various programs.

Penny Schouten, a study-abroad marketing consultant who was involved with getting the New Paltz blogs off the ground, explains that while the initial goal of the blogs was to lighten the workload for office staff, it became much more than that. In addition to chronicling students’ time abroad, the blogs created continuity and community be-tween prospective and current students, who also felt “they were doing a great service to their campus.”

Schouten also spoke to the importance of students being able to get the information from their peers. “Students didn’t want to hear from me where the cool clubs are in London; they wanted to hear it from other students,” she says.

A Spirit of Collaboration

Schouten and Schwartzman both recognize the potential of social media in transforming how students go about mak-ing their study-abroad choices. Schwartzman, for his part, hopes that blogs, Facebook, and individual networking so-lutions are just the first step.

“To me,” Schwartzman says, “the next level of study-abroad social networking is a spirit of true collaboration where in-formation about programs, schools, program providers, and study abroad destinations is interchanged in a free-flowing, centralized forum. In this forum, students would be able to communicate with each other about study abroad uncen-sored and openly. This, of course, is a bit of an idealistic outlook -- but it’s worth striving towards.”

You can check out these social-networking sites on the Internet at http://www.cafeabroad.com and http://www.abroadblogs.newpaltz.edu.

Social Networks and Study Abroad

In the library of the University of South Carolina students have access to electronic and traditional media. (© AP Images)

The U.S. Embassy’s Information Resource Center (IRC) has its own page on the popular social networking website Fa-cebook. Currently, the page has over 500 members, whose number is growing day after day.

The page contains useful information about the IRC, its work hours, services and resources. It also publishes information about current and future Embassy programs and events, the updated schedule for the weekly Chai Chat Club and so on.

Additionally, the page provides information and the link to the IRC Visitor Registration System - a Facebook application that helps visitors who want to go to the IRC to request ap-pointments online. To check out the system, go to http://apps.facebook.com/ircvisitor/.

Registered members, also known as fans, can post questions or comments on the notice board (the Wall) of the page. They can also leave their feedback on IRC services and discuss Embassy programs.

Anyone who wants to become a member (fan) of the IRC Tashkent page, first, needs to get a free Facebook account (if you don’t have one yet!) and then go to http://www.facebook.com/usdos.uzbekistan and click on the ‘Become a fan” but-ton at the very top. Easy! http://www.facebook.com/usdos.uzbekistan

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The Educational Advising Center offers the following services free of charge:

• general information about educational opportunities in the U.S.• individual advising in areas of study and course descriptions• test preparation materials for SAT, TOEFL, GrE and GMAT that can be used during consultation hours• U.S. college selection database• supporting reference materials• financial aid resources• application guides• guides to Distance Learning

The center is supported by an educational advisor, a ref-erence library, and educational software, all of which are geared to meeting the various needs of students that want to study in the United States.

Advising hours are by appointment from 13:00-17:00, Mon-day to Thursday. To schedule an appointment, please call

120-5450 between 9:30 to 12:00 Monday through Friday or e-mail [email protected].

A sample of the materials offered by the Educational Advising Center at the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent. (U.S. Embassy photo)

Educational Advising Center at the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent

IRC Tashkent on Facebook

Embassy of the United States of America

3 Moyqorghon Street 5th Block, Yunusobod District Tashkent, 100093 Republic of Uzbekistan

Phone: (+99871) 120-5450 Consular Section: (+99871) 120-4718, 120-4719 Fax: (+99871) 120-6302

Website: http://uzbekistan.usembassy.gov Email: [email protected]


Medical practitioners, orphans, elderly and other citizens in need have received over USD $1.5 million worth of humanitarian assistance in 2009 from the U.S.- affili-ated Community & Humanitarian Assistance Program (CHAP). A rapid response humanitarian program, CHAP provides non-profit and government agencies with in-kind assistance, food, clothing, bedding, hospital equip-ment and supplies, and pharmaceuticals. Distribution partners this year, among others, include the New Hope Rehabilitation Foundation, the Children’s Foundation of Uzbekistan, and the Uzbekistan Ministry of Health.

With CHAP support, a shelter for women in Bukhara was renovated to improve the living conditions of the shel-ter’s residents. The renovations will increase the capacity of the shelter and improve its overall hygiene and sani-tary conditions. Sending shipments to Uzbekistan since 1999, CHAP has delivered more than 400 containers of humanitarian aid to recipients across the country. The to-tal value of this assistance amounts to over $90 million with over 500 thousand vulnerable people affected.

Families and Children in Need Benefit from U.S. Humanitarian Donations

Uzbek orphans express their gratitude for new clothing, bedding and others supplies. (CHAP photo)

A medical worker checks donated equipment. (CHAP photo)

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